Formula 1 General Chat & Discussion

Here are the times of the 1st practice session :

1. Sebastian Vettel : Red Bull Racing : 1:38.125 -
2. Lewis Hamilton : McLaren : 1:39.543 + 1.418
3. Fernando Alonso : Ferrari : 1:40.337 + 2.212
4. Jenson Button : McLaren : 1:40.528 + 2.403
5. Mark Webber : Red Bull Racing : 1:40.650 + 2.525
6. Felipe Massa : Ferrari : 1:40.966 + 2.841
7. Nico Hulkenberg : Force India : 1:41.023 + 2.898
8. Kamui Kobayashi : Sauber : 1:41.036 + 2.911
9. Nico Rosberg : Mercedes GP : 1:41.159 + 3.034
10. Sergio Perez : Sauber : 1:41.473 + 3.348
11. Paul di Resta : Force India : 1:41.783 + 3.658
12. Daniel Ricciardo : Toro Rosso : 1:41.825 + 3.700
13. Jean-Eric Vergne : Toro Rosso : 1:41.833 + 3.708
14. Kimi Räikkönen : Lotus : 1:41.880 + 3.755
15. Romain Grosjean : Lotus : 1:41.998 + 3.873
16. Pastor Maldonado : Williams : 1:42.539 + 4.414
17. Michael Schumacher : Mercedes GP : 1:42.588 + 4.463
18. Charles Pic : Marussia F1 Team : 1:43.288 + 5.163
19. Heikki Kovalainen : Caterham : 1:43.443 + 5.318
20. Vitaly Petrov : Caterham : 1:43.522 + 5.397
21. Timo Glock : Marussia F1 Team : 1:44.464 + 6.339
22. Bruno Senna : Williams : 1:44.548 + 6.423
23. Pedro de la Rosa : HRT F1 Team : 1:46.917 + 8.792
24. Qing Hua Ma : HRT F1 Team : 1:48.559 + 10.434

Comment of this session :
Sebastian Vettel led the way for Red Bull in the opening practice session for the United States Grand Prix at the brand new Austin circuit on Friday. Lewis Hamilton ended up second for McLaren, over a second down on Vettel, with Fernando Alonso, Jenson Button and Mark Webber rounding out the top five.
Positions and times are likely to prove irrelevant however as the very green circuit continues to rubber-in - and teams and drivers continue to acclimatise - as the weekend progresses. The honour of christening the circuit fell to Abu Dhabi Grand Prix winner Kimi Raikkonen, who led a host of drivers out on early, and very tentative, exploratory laps. Sauber's Kamui Kobayashi meanwhile completed the first flying lap, a very modest 1m54.846s.
That benchmark fell rapidly: next time around he was already more than six seconds faster, while within a quarter of an hour Webber had moved it on by a full 11 seconds, dropping down to a 1m43.672s.
Still though the track was treacherous, with a litany of small offs and rear wheel drifts punctuating the action.
The trend continued even when championship rivals Sebastian Vettel and Fernando Alonso and the two McLarens of Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button entered the fray in earnest around the one hour mark.
Of the quartet it was Alonso who was up to speed fastest, the Ferrari man lowering the benchmark to a 1m42.538s. Hamilton was quickly up to speed however, becoming the first man to drop into the 1m40s at the session's halfway mark. At the same time Nico Hulkenberg enjoyed the dubious honour of becoming the first man to spin at Austin, losing the rear of his Force India as he crested the blind Turn 1 apex. Sergio Perez also had a wild moment as his rear broke traction coming into the pits, although he was able to save the slide.
Alonso and Hamilton swapped top spot again as the session wore on, with the Briton pushing hard enough to run wide at T19. He was not alone however: Vettel, Felipe Massa and a litany of other drivers fell foul of the quick left-hander across the session. Heading into the final 15 minutes Hamilton suddenly surged clear, a blistering 1m39.687s - from which he then shaved a further 0.1s – moving him over half a second clear of the field. It appeared that would be enough to keep him top, but with three minutes to go championship leader Vettel celebrated the opening of his 100th grand prix by seizing control. The German had already proved mighty in the first sector, but was able to improve massively in the second and third splits as he blitzed the field with a 1m38.125s set as the flag fell. No-one else had either the time to muster an answer, leaving Vettel comfortably clear of the chasing pack. Felipe Massa claimed sixth as the flag fell, ahead of Nico Hulkenberg, Kamui Kobayashi and Nico Rosberg, running a non-coanda effect exhaust layout for comparative purposes.
Perez rounded out the top 10 ahead of the second Force India of Paul di Resta, Toro Rosso pair Daniel Ricciardo and Jean-Eric Vergne and Raikkonen, who had to be wheeled down the pitlane as the session finished. Pastor Maldonado finished as the fastest Williams in 16th, while Marussia's Charles Pic claimed the 'best of the rest' tag in 18th ahead of Caterham's Heikki Kovalainen.

Next session will be later on at 20.00u CET
you can follow it " live " trough this link :
[Versteckter Link - Registrierung notwendig]

Kind Regards
Shaky-Schumi

Christian Horner 16th November 1973
[Versteckter Link - Registrierung notwendig]
Happy Birthday to your 39th anniversary

Short News :

Vettel becomes Champion this weekend if :
- He claimes victory ( 1st place ) & Alonso not finsih at the top 4 ( with 1st 4th )
- He becomes 2nd & Alonso ends up not at the top 8 ( with the 1st 8th )
- He becomes 3rd & Alonso ends not the top 10 ( with the 1st 10 )


In all other cases, the title race will be decided at the last race in Brazil. That would depend on the outcome of this weekend in Austin . So it could/might be that we can see a thriller in the last race !

Kind Regards
Shaky-Schumi

f1 news
The Grand Prix this Sunday in Austin will be an important event in the career of Sebastian Vettel not only because he is playing the third consecutive World Title. In fact, the Red Bull driver will compete in the 100 ° GP during his dazzling athletic activities in Formula 1, with the aim of celebrating in the best way this milestone prestige.

Circuit of the Americas – Austin(Texas) – 1° edition
The statistic of this season after 18 races
wins: Vettel(5) Alonso and Hamilton (3)Webber and Button (2), Rosberg, Maldonado and Raikkonen (1)
2°place: Alonso(4) Raikkonen and Button (3); Vettel and Perez (2), Rosberg, Grosjean, Webber and Massa(1)
3°place: Alonso(4) Raikkonen and Hamilton(3) Grosjean and Vettel (2), Schumacher, Perez, Kobayashi and Webber (1)
pole: Hamilton(6) Vettel (5); Alonso and Webber (2), Rosberg, Maldonado and Button (1)
fastest lap: Vettel(5); Raikkonen, Rosberg and Button (2) Kobayashi, Grosjean, Perez, Schumacher Senna, Hulkenberg and Webber (1)
After five years, the Formula 1 championship returns in USA on the new Austin circuit. The track looks quite good with many ups and downs. The first corner is a steep uphill left hander, following by a sequence of fast turns, similar at the Maggots Becketts Chapel complex (Silverstone) or Esses(Suzuka). For sure the first half of the track is the most interesting. Then there is the usually long straight(only one) that begins and ends with slow corners, while in the last sector(the slowest) there are the curves 16 -17 and 18: a long multi-apex right hander. The driving direction is anticlockwise and at the beginning of the weekend, the track will be very slippery. Only a single DRS zone on the longest straight. The tyre compounds will be silver hard(prime) and white medium(option). A very conservative choice, perhaps too, used only on circuits with a high tyre wear or probably the Pirelli engineers have done a prudent choice because the track is completely new.
In the past, many circuits(Indianapolis Watkins Glen, Long Beach, Las Vegas Detroit, Dallas, Phoenix and others) have hosted Formula One in USA. The circuit of Las Vegas, built in the Caesar Palace hotel parking, is probably one of the worst in the history of formula 1. Not good even Phoenix, Dallas and Detroit(all, street circuits); instead a bit better, Long Beach. For me, the best track in USA was Watkins Glen. A fast circuit but perhaps also too dangerous. On this track Francois Cevert won his one and only Gran Prix(1971), but tragically, it was also the place where two years later, the young Frenchman would lose his life in qualifying. Cevert was a good driver, one of the best French pilots of all time. In 1973 finished second, six times, often behind his teammate and first driver in Tyrrell, Jacky Stewart. After the fatal accident of his teammate, the Scottish, three time world champion, announced his decision not to compete at Watkins Glen and he retired forever from the races. Just a few months before had died in Zandvoort, another pilot Roger Williamson. Was his second Grand Prix. His friend David Purley stops and desperately tries to save him from the flames, but he can’t and no one helps him. A black day in the history of F1.

A litle reminder for this weekend : The Grand Prix of America :

Friday :
1st practice session : 16.00u - 17.30u ( CET )
2nd practice session : 20.00u - 21.30u ( CET )

Saturday :
3rd practice session : 16.00u - 17.00u ( CET )
Qualification : 19.00u - 20.00u 5 ( CET )

Sunday :
Race : 20.00u ( CET )

Kind Regards
Shaky-Schumi

10/11/1965 happy birthday to eddie irvine former ferrari driver
[Verstecktes Bild - Registrierung notwendig]

Peter Collins
[Versteckter Link - Registrierung notwendig]
Born : 6th November 1931 - Died : 3rd August 1958

Jacques Villeneuve Senior 4th November 1953
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Happy Birthday to your 59th anniversary

brudgon wrote:1 Kimi Räikkönen Lotus
2 Fernando Alonso Ferrari
3 Sebastian Vettel Red Bull Racing
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Fastest lap : Sebastian Vettel - 1:43.964
Pitstop Heikki Kavalainen : 1
D.S.L : 17

Kind Regards
Shaky-Schumi

A terrible accident ! Glory to God - all survived ! Sebastian Vettel - the hero of the day !

2012 FORMULA 1 UNITED STATES GRAND PRIX
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Fri 16 November 2012
Practice 1 16:00 - 17:30
Practice 2 20:00 - 21:30
Sat 17 November 2012
Practice 3 16:00 - 17:00
Qualifying 19:00
Sun 18 November 2012
Race 20:00

constructors standings
1 Red Bull Racing-Renault 422
2 Ferrari 340
3 McLaren-Mercedes 318
4 Lotus-Renault 288
5 Mercedes 136
6 Sauber-Ferrari 124
7 Force India-Mercedes 95
8 Williams-Renault 73
9 STR-Ferrari 22
10 Marussia-Cosworth 0
11 Caterham-Renault 0
12 HRT-Cosworth 0

drivers standings
1 Sebastian Vettel German Red Bull Racing-Renault 255
2 Fernando Alonso Spanish Ferrari 245
3 Kimi Räikkönen Finnish Lotus-Renault 198
4 Mark Webber Australian Red Bull Racing-Renault 167
5 Lewis Hamilton British McLaren-Mercedes 165
6 Jenson Button British McLaren-Mercedes 153
7 Felipe Massa Brazilian Ferrari 95
8 Nico Rosberg German Mercedes 93
9 Romain Grosjean French Lotus-Renault 90
10 Sergio Perez Mexican Sauber-Ferrari 66
11 Kamui Kobayashi Japanese Sauber-Ferrari 58
12 Nico Hulkenberg German Force India-Mercedes 49
13 Paul di Resta British Force India-Mercedes 46
14 Pastor Maldonado Venezuelan Williams-Renault 43
15 Michael Schumacher German Mercedes 43
16 Bruno Senna Brazilian Williams-Renault 30
17 Jean-Eric Vergne French STR-Ferrari 12
18 Daniel Ricciardo Australian STR-Ferrari 10
19 Timo Glock German Marussia-Cosworth 0
20 Heikki Kovalainen Finnish Caterham-Renault 0
21 Vitaly Petrov Russian Caterham-Renault 0
22 Jerome D'Ambrosio Belgian Lotus-Renault 0
23 Charles Pic French Marussia-Cosworth 0
24 Narain Karthikeyan Indian HRT-Cosworth 0
25 Pedro de la Rosa Spanish HRT-Cosworth 0

2012 FORMULA 1 ETIHAD AIRWAYS ABU DHABI GRAND PRIX
1 9 Kimi Räikkönen Lotus-Renault 55 Winner 4 25
2 5 Fernando Alonso Ferrari 55 +0.8 secs 6 18
3 1 Sebastian Vettel Red Bull Racing-Renault 55 +4.1 secs 24 15
4 3 Jenson Button McLaren-Mercedes 55 +7.7 secs 5 12
5 18 Pastor Maldonado Williams-Renault 55 +13.0 secs 3 10
6 14 Kamui Kobayashi Sauber-Ferrari 55 +20.0 secs 15 8
7 6 Felipe Massa Ferrari 55 +22.8 secs 8 6
8 19 Bruno Senna Williams-Renault 55 +23.5 secs 14 4
9 11 Paul di Resta Force India-Mercedes 55 +24.1 secs 12 2
10 16 Daniel Ricciardo STR-Ferrari 55 +27.4 secs 16 1
11 7 Michael Schumacher Mercedes 55 +28.0 secs 13
12 17 Jean-Eric Vergne STR-Ferrari 55 +34.9 secs 17
13 20 Heikki Kovalainen Caterham-Renault 55 +47.7 secs 18
14 24 Timo Glock Marussia-Cosworth 55 +56.4 secs 21
15 15 Sergio Perez Sauber-Ferrari 55 +56.7 secs 11
16 21 Vitaly Petrov Caterham-Renault 55 +64.5 secs 20
17 22 Pedro de la Rosa HRT-Cosworth 55 +71.7 secs 22
Ret 25 Charles Pic Marussia-Cosworth 41 +14 Laps 19
Ret 10 Romain Grosjean Lotus-Renault 37 Accident 9
Ret 2 Mark Webber Red Bull Racing-Renault 37 Accident 2
Ret 4 Lewis Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes 19 +36 Laps 1
Ret 23 Narain Karthikeyan HRT-Cosworth 7 Accident 23
Ret 8 Nico Rosberg Mercedes 7 Accident 7
Ret 12 Nico Hulkenberg Force India-Mercedes 0 Accident 10